The invention relates to an ammunition magazine for an automatic loading arrangement of the type disclosed and described in West-German published application No. 30 46 642. In the afore-mentioned West-German published patent application there is disclosed a band magazine for an automatic loading arrangement. This known band magazine has a flat silhouette so that it can be mounted in the turret of a tank or armored vehicle. Such known band magazine is of compact construction, so that it can accommodate as large a number as possible of cartridges, of possible different types of ammunition, in the immediate vicinity of the gun barrel, to thereby provide a time-saving feeding of cartridges thereto. This known band magazine transports the cartridges in transport trays transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the cartridge towards a turn-around position from which it is pushed out of the magazine by means of a turn-around lever and is slid into the loading chamber of the gun barrel. The individual links of the transport trays are pivotally joined to each other at the cartridged axes and these transport trays are guidingly fed along a peripheral path. The transport trays thereby form partial ammunition holders for receiving horizontally stored cartridges.
Experience with this type of known arrangement has, however, demonstrated that such X-shaped transport trays forming ammunition holders are not capable to transport thin-walled cartridged ammunition, in particular anti-tank ammunition having a combustible casing. This is due to the fact that impacts, shaking, vibrations, oscillations and similar disturbing influences, which occur during travel of the tank or armored vehicle, can cause damage or even destroy such sensitive type of ammunition. Such damage is above all caused by the fact that in such ammunition holders, as a result of manufacturing tolerances, a radial play between the cartridged and ammunition holder cannot be avoided, in particular also not because the cartridge in the region of its bottom relative to the region of the projectile head has different diameters. As a result of the play that occurs because of such manufacturing tolerances, damage to the sensitive ammunition is accelerated due to superimposed shaking movements, vibrations etc. which occur, on the one hand, between the rigid transportation tray and the projectile head region, and on the other hand, between the rigid walls of the transport trays and the cartridge bottom.